Skip to main content

Thin PC

How does a Thin PC work?

We have recently started recycling old PC's as Thin PC - using Windows 7 Embedded. So basically using them as terminal to a remote desktop server. Gives old machines a new lease of life for no cost (assuming you have a EES agreement with MS). The trick is to get the Thin PC to go straight to the rdp to the server you want. So key steps if you are interested are:

  • Put the Thin-PC in a OU where there is a group policy that auto logs on a standard user.
  • Change the shell from explorer to %windir%\system32\mstsc.exe
  • I have one script that calls a vbs script that runs the rdp session and loops to re-run it on exit or if the user tries to close the session. Key thing is to run the scripts silently so the user cannot close them.
  • Lock Crtl-Alt-Del down with gpo so user just gets Cancel as the only option. 

Anyone wants to know more - let me know.
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Delete a specific email using GAM

If a user send an inappropriate email to a loads of people or get stung by some sort of email exploit you can quickly delete the email from all of the recipients using a GAM command.
Step 1 - get the email header Go into Google Vault and search for the offending user or someone known to have got the message.
Click show details and grab the email ID. This will be a long string of characters followed by @mail.gmail.com
Step 2 - find out who has the email Go into Google Vault and find the original message sent by the offending user. Look at the details to see who got it. Copy the list and dump it into a spreadsheet. Clean up to just a list of emails with a column header 'mail'. Save as a csv file.
Step 3 - delete messages with GAM Put your CSV file in your GAM folder - this e.g. assumes its called mail.csv
Run:
gam csv mail.csv gam user ~mail delete messages query rfc822msgid:MESSAGEIDHERE doit

 The alternative nuke option is:
gam all users delete messages query rfc822msgid:MESSAGEI…
Read more

How to push bookmarks to users in Chrome via the management console

With the release of Chrome and ChomeOS 37 an update to the management console has arrived that allows you to push bookmarks to users.

Under Device Management > Chrome > User Settings > User Experience you will now find the option to add managed bookmarks.


In the example above, the bookmarks are applied to the sub-OU of 'students' - so all our students will get these bookmarks. Simply add your url and the bookmark name, click the + and save. These will appear in a folder called 'yourdomain bookmarks' - see below:



Be aware that to get these bookmarks applied on a Windows/OS-X device the user must be signed into Chrome. Update: if you install the latest group policy template you can push the bookmarks via policy on PCs - details are given here.
Video Guide:

Read more

Using Quarantine Manager in Google Apps

Fairly recently Quarantine Manager was introduced to Google Apps. This is a tool that works alongside SPAM filtering, objectionable content and content compliance rules you may have setup. Essentially the Quarantine Manager holds messages that fall into the categories you have defined for administrators to view before approving or rejecting the messages.

We have used this to block all SPAM messages going to students. This is a brief look at how to set it up.  Please note, it is very important to have authenticated email setup - this prevents things like group notifications every ending up in SPAM.
Step 1 - define some Quarantine Names Head to email settings. You will find 'Manage Quarantines' below 'Authenticated email' near the bottom:
Click on 'ADD' - top left Give the quarantine a name and description of what it is going to do. Decide if you just want to drop the message or send a rejection email. See example below: This in itself does nothing - you have to …
Read more